Thursday, 20 December 2012

Continuing with medieval background articles, I saved the
topic of disease toward the end as I had not a clue how this should be integrated
in a campaign setting. Die rolls, event cards, catastrophe tables were
possibilities, but as I gleaned information the answer became clear. Let us
first look at the scope of disease in this period.

The Black Death

The most notable affliction, the Black Death was the
most devastating; some suggesting between 75 million and 200 million people
became victims in the period of 1348 and 1350.

Although the
event was a half century before the start of our campaign, the plague
repeatedly returned to haunt Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the 14th
to 17th centuries.

In 1466,
perhaps 40,000 people died of plague in Paris. During the 16th and 17th
centuries, plague visited Paris for almost one year out of three. From 1348, the
Black Death ravaged Europe for three years before it continued on into Russia,
where the disease hit somewhere once every five or six years from 1350 to 1490.

Its periodic
occurrence was due to rapid urbanization of cities which became a breeding
ground among the filth, decay for all sorts of vermin and parasites.

Other afflictions:

Pneumonia

Pneumonia was
prevalent as cold, drafty dwellings led to numerous cases during hard winters. In
warm weather, improper sanitation made typhoid a constant problem.

Mental illness

Mental illness
was also widespread during the middle Ages. Injuries received to babies during
the birthing process often led to brain trauma. Little could be done for these
people, but there were no institutions for them and many were accepted into
society. Others, however, would have crosses shaved into the backs of their
heads, or be tied to pews in the church in hopes that mass would bring them
relief.

Leprosy

Leprosy
remained the most feared disease of the middle Ages, until the Black Death,
that is. This disease was rampant throughout Western Europe and leper colonies
could be found everywhere. In France, alone, there were 2,000 such colonies in
the 11th-13th centuries

Life expectancy

Medieval men
and women reaching the age of 45 were considered "old", however, the
average life-span was somewhere between 30 and 35 years. This number is said to
have dropped all the way down to eighteen and twenty years after the introduction
of the plague in 1348. Variation of age was subject to factors like poverty, wealth,
city dweller or rural inhabitant.

Causes:

While the
ancient diseases of pneumonia, tuberculosis, and smallpox, and others including
typhoid, diphtheria, cholera, malaria, typhus, anthrax, scarlet fever, measles,
epilepsy, trachoma, gonorrhea, and amebiasis persisted throughout this period, many
of which were related to deficient diet.

Life in the
medieval period became a vicious circle in which hunger and chronic disease
reduced the productivity of the peasantry, freemen and others alike. In an
agrarian and mercantile society, this had dire consequences.

We generally
avoid using event cards or tables to determine a moment of decision. Depending
on the frequency of moves, when do you roll the die or draw a card to represent
an event? The DBA campaign option is based on seasonal moves (double). We
prefer monthly, which is fine for recording anomalies within the expected cycle
of the year. An early thaw with a steady warm period and sufficient rain can
generate an increase in harvest, whereas a prolonged winter can produce the
obverse, a meager harvest.

Aside from the economic consequences, a second such
year would lay the basis for a possible famine. As we have read above, after
famine, disease followed.

For the
campaign designer, the game gathers a realistic luster if changes become
logical and force the player to make hard decisions he/she would normally not
make with a one off game. Crippled by famine and the economics thereof, a
player may seek a loan with an exorbitant interest rate, consent to an alliance
or if at war, sue for peace.

In the period
following the Black Death, we noted similar events took place every five years,
but on a smaller scale. The plague would make its presence felt after a year or
two of famine.

Note: Pneumonia
would strike hardest during the winter months and contagions or plague during
the summer period.

Monday, 10 December 2012

Wallachia is situated between the Danube and the southern
edge of the Carpathian Mountains. Established as a principality in the 14th
century, Wallachia gained independence from Hungary shortly thereafter, but
this was short lived. After 1417, the Principality of Wallachia became part of
the Ottoman Empire.

Independence

The drive toward independence was realized during the
reign of Viovode Basarab. The decisive victory at Posada in November 1330, over
King Charles I of Hungary, solidified her freedom. Sealing her independence, Basarab’s
prestige increased further by placing his son-in-law on the throne of Bulgaria
in 1331.

Following the Byzantine model of government,
Wallachian princes exercised absolute power. They were the host commanders,
supreme judges, patronized the church and made decisions that became laws.
Although a dynastic monarchy, the princes were elected by the boyars of the
ruling family, however, the boyars, the landed aristocracy, slowly lost
influence as the princes granted favoured persons privileges having similar
status.

Multiple Vassalage

As neighboring lands fell to the Ottoman Empire,
Wallachian sought assistance from multiple kingdoms. Mircea the Elder,
grandfather of Vlad Tepes, accepted the suzerainty of Poland in 1387 and of
Hungary in 1395.

Mircea the Elder

Mircea’s reign strengthened the power of the state.
New offices were organized, increased economic development moved ahead and trade
with the merchants of Poland and Lithuania flourished. With the increase
revenue, Mircea was able to flex his military power and fortify the Danube
citadels. Renewal of treaties with Hungary and Poland ensured focus on the
common threat, the Ottoman expansion.

Mircea’s intervention, supporting the Bulgarians,
brought him in conflict with the Ottomans. Sultan Beyazid (the Thunderbolt)
crossed the Danube with 40,000. With less than 10,000 troops, Mircea used
guerilla warfare to maximum effect. On October 10, 1394, the armies clashed at
Rovine, a forested and swamp area which inhibited the Ottomans from fully
utilizing their superior numbers.

Despite a glorious victory, Mircea was forced to fall
back to Hungary as Vlad Uzurpatorul had seized the throne. While exiled in
Hungary, her monarch called for a Crusade against the Ottomans. Contingents
from as far away as France, the Holy Roman Empire, Genoa, Venice and Bulgaria
assembled and crossed the Danube. The Battle of Nicopolis ended any hope of the
Crusade flourishing.

In 1397, with the help of Hungary, Mircea defeated
Vlad the Usurper and stopped further Ottoman encroachment across the Danube.
Further expeditions by the Ottomans met with no further success. The summer of
1402 began a period of anarchy when Sultan Beyazid met defeat by Tamerlane at
Ankara.

Subsequent campaigns further strengthened Mircea’s
power and toward the end of his reign, the Ottomans settled a treaty with
tribute to halt any further attempts to make Wallachia a province of the
Ottoman Empire.

Friday, 7 December 2012

I have constructed a series of smaller
houses to assemble as a hamlet for our DBA 3.0 games, but wanted to build
something that could represent commercial activity, a town.

Photo one, shows the pink foam board cut into
rough form; structure body is separate from the gable roof. These were glued
together and given an undercoat.

With a hard pencil, I sketched the timber
frame, windows and doors and in some cases stonework. Painting the windows
first, I followed with grey for all the stone work, and for the larger areas, I
offset this by using pastel colour. With
a steady brush stroke, I painted the timber frame and highlighted were needed.
The embossed roofing is from Vollmer.

Completed structures were paired, glued to
their bases, groundwork applied, painted and flocked.

Sunday, 2 December 2012

Trento is located at the very most northern part of
Italy; nestled between the fir covered slopes of the river Adige river valley
all traffic southward bound from the Brenner Pass would quickly encounter the
fortified walls of Trento. Situated on the border, Trento quickly became the
playing field between Bavarian, Tirol and Verona during the centuries preceding
our campaign.

Tirol’s claim strengthened when in 1363, Countess
Magaret "Maultasch" offered her lands to the House of Hapsburg It would take 62
years of defying Hapsburg threatened subjugation, appeals to the Holy Roman
Emperor and a resort to arms, that Trento would be declared a commune.

Pre-15th century

Italy was the first to flex her urbanization and
commercial muscle during the 11th through the 13th
century. Trento was ideally placed to profit from commercial traffic moving
between the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian peninsula.

From this period, Trento was under the rule of
Count-Bishops which created divided loyalties. The ecclesiastical power required
loyalty to Rome, while the Counts acceded their authority to German
administration. A sign that the Counts were winning a point was the adoption in
1339, of the Eagle of St. Wenceslas was assigned to the city arms by St. Nicholas of Brno.

In the Campaign.

At the start of the campaign, the Counts of Tirol are
escalating pressure to bring Trento in line, while Trento remains defiant. The
composition for the forces of Trento follow the Italian Condotta list, which
follows: